Calling a Tow Truck in Buffalo, NY, at Two in the Morning — What Happens, What It Costs and What We Will Not Promise

Short answer: What actually happens when you call a 24-hour tow company in Buffalo at night: what we ask, what you pay, why there is no after-hours rate, and why we will not promise an arrival time.

What We Ask When You Call

Where the car is, with cross streets. What it is, because an all-wheel-drive car and a front-wheel-drive car need different trucks. What it is doing: dead, flat, locked, stuck or wrecked. And where it needs to go, if it needs to go anywhere. From those four answers we quote the job before the truck is sent. Text the location if it is easier; a pin from your phone beats a description of a dark street.

What It Costs at Night

Exactly what it costs in the day. A tow is $50 to book, $110 to hook and $7 a loaded mile, which is $160 before mileage. A jump start or a lockout is a flat $129 flat with the booking fee included. There is no after-hours multiplier, no weekend rate and no holiday rate. The pricing page is the same page at midnight.

What We Will Not Promise

An arrival time. Where the truck is when you call, how the roads are and how many jobs are already stacked all change hour to hour, and in a lake-effect band they change minute to minute. We will tell you what we honestly think, and we will tell you again if it slips. A company that promises you thirty minutes at two in the morning in January is promising something it does not control.

What to Do While You Wait

Get off the travel lane if the car can be pushed. Hazards on. Stay in the car if it is cold and the car is in a safe spot; get out and away from it if it is not. Have the keys ready and anything blocking the car moved. If it is a flatbed job, the truck needs a straight run behind the car; if the street is tight, say so and a wheel-lift may be the right truck. The tow cost guide covers the rest of the bill.

The Numbers This Guide Uses

• Tow: $50 booking fee + $110 hook-up fee + $7 per loaded mile. $160 before mileage; $195 on five miles; $300 on twenty. Flatbed and wheel-lift cost the same.
• Jump start $129, car lockout $129, flat tire change $169, fuel delivery $129 plus the fuel, battery replacement $199 plus the battery. Flat, booking fee included, no mileage.
• Winch-out and recovery: $199 to book plus $150 an hour from when the driver arrives. How far off the pavement, what the truck can anchor to and whether the car rolls decide how long it takes.
• No after-hours, weekend or holiday rate. Quoted before the truck is sent; paid when the job is done.

Every number is on the pricing page with a calculator, and the questions page has the short answers.

Where This Comes Up Most

The question this guide answers gets asked from every part of Buffalo and Erie County, and each area has its own page with the streets, the places and the prices from there: towing and roadside assistance in Allentown, towing and roadside assistance in Elmwood-Bidwell, towing and roadside assistance in Elmwood Village and towing and roadside assistance in Linwood. The same service, flatbed towing, has its own page in each of them too: flatbed towing in Allentown, flatbed towing in Elmwood-Bidwell, flatbed towing in Elmwood Village and flatbed towing in Linwood. The areas page has all 72.

Read Next

How Much Does a Tow Cost in Buffalo NY? The Full Math, Cheapest Tow Truck in Buffalo NY — What Cheap Really Means, Can't Afford a Tow Truck in Buffalo? Real Options and Car Won't Start in Buffalo? Battery or Alternator, Fast. The service page is flatbed towing in Buffalo, and the blog write-up covers the part most people get wrong.